Making stuff up

Author: SWJ

I Knew You is part of the New and Nurtured season at The Rep I trailed last week. Written by Steven Camden, aka local spoken word artist Polarbear, and directed by Daniel Bailey, I got the chance to see it … Continue reading I Knew You at The Rep

The Rep has a reputation for looking after talent – and the New & Nurtured programme gives you the chance to see some exciting new theatre from a range of new writers. Bonus points for The Rep also for the … Continue reading New & Nurtured at The Rep

I can’t say that an exhibition about cars is something that would ever float my boat generally. I can’t drive, I’ve never even had a lesson and the provisional license I finally got when I was 20 something ran out … Continue reading Cartists: Reimagining the Car

In 2015, I managed to read 18 books. That’s more than one a month, which to me seems like a pretty good number. UntiI I read an article by a woman talking about the 164 books she managed to read in a year. That’s more than three books a week. Three. Books. A week. A WEEK. Not only did she read the books, she also kept a spreadsheet of all the books she read. Now I feel inadequate as a reader. Perhaps the fact that she’s a librarian gives her an unfair advantage, but still, unless I spent all my … Continue reading Some books I read last year

In a recent Guardian article, art critic Jonathan Jones wrote that Terry Pratchett’s discworld novels are not worth reading, that wasting your time reading them when you could be dragging your brain through the mire of some serious heavyweight Important Literature (please note very important capitals) is a heinous crime against art and culture. Well, sort of. He basically said he hadn’t read any Pratchett and never plans to. But he has just read some Jane Austen. So that’s nice for him. Ignore the fact that it kind of feels like he wrote the piece in about half an hour … Continue reading A prose more ordinary

Originally posted on Nicky Tate: A career which involves writing can seem like the perfect fit, if you are an aspiring author. In a talk I gave this weekend to the Stevenage Writers’ Group I outlined some of the pros and cons, and being realistic about “giving up the day job.” Thank you to the group; it was a lovely laid-back session on a beautiful sunny day and I am grateful for the opportunity to spend some time in their stimulating and fun company. Thank you for asking me to talk a bit about what I do. My job is to write… Continue reading Choose Your Sausages Wisely.